Problems related to Peacemaking

66. The problems that the peacemaker will have to face are of infinite variety. There may be stiff opposition to the entire effort from interested parties on either side. The peacemaker may appear a threat to militants committed to violence and to those benefiting from the insecurity created by armed conflict. Violence is not broken by superior violence, it is broken by another power: a tremendous capacity to endure suffering. If you want to save the lives of others, be prepared for death. Several peacemakers have given their lives for their cause: in recent History, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

67. In the same way, representatives of the Government may be suspicious. Petty-minded officers may be jealous. Anti-Christian groups may be critical and unhappy about the influence that the Church seems to exert. There may be negative interpretations in the press. There may be repeated failures in the peace-promoting work itself.

68. Negotiators whom the peacemaker contacted may refuse to put up an appearance. Their ears may be poisoned against Christian initiatives. Follow-up efforts may never take off. People may get discouraged from the recurrence of violence. Collective anger may be rekindled if their community is hit again unexpectedly. Malicious rumours may be deliberately spread. The press may inflate the number of victims, interpret the issues wrongly, ignore the peacemaker’s initiatives and successes. She may feel left alone to struggle. But even in the midst of troubles, she should hold her head high. She need not try to refute every charge and counter every opposition. She could respond to these difficulties with simple explanations or even by allowing things to happen and events to flow. She could let people speak just as they wish for a while. But she should be honest and upright in her intent and ego-less in her service. Her very non-resistance may prove a turning-point for the current to reverse the flow. And finally, the truth reveals itself.

69.  She may come across another type of difficulty as the dialogue progresses. It will seem to her as though words have changed their meanings. For example, someone may be using the word ‘justice’ to refer to the advantage of his own community only, not of others. By ‘peace’ he may mean retaining in serenity a whole lot unfair advantages and privileges. ‘Democracy’ may mean doing as one pleases, freedom to do injustice, or total chaos. Sometimes discussions cannot make headway because the contestants have their own style of using words, their own way of interpreting history, their own strategies of making allegations, their own fashion of creating myths. The peacemaker should not give up.

70. She may come across contradictions between professed intentions and actual conduct. This is as much true of local gunmen and World Powers. Wars may be fought for saving democracy on the one hand and salvaging one’s imperial interests on the other, or for defending human rights and the flow of oil into one’s tankers. People who claim to be allegedly fighting to save their ethnic identity and cultural heritage, may, in fact, be striving to keep the routes of their drug-trade clear. Even so, at depths they all have some good will. The peacemaker does not turn cynical, but tries to ransom people from their own inconsistencies.

71. If memories of historic injuries are alive in people’s hearts and if negative stereotypes of each other have developed, it will be difficult to solve the problem in a short time. In such a case, every peace-agreement is a truce. Hostilities may be renewed any time. But the peacemaker finds renewed strength and motivation in her faith and love. She is ready to begin all over again. She gets busy with the healing of historic injuries and demolishing of stereotypes. For God will is with her.